I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt painting on my fairing. I always like to do things myself and enjoy learning new things. So I'm thinking I want to paint my MS fairing with a 2 tone scheme like this. (this is done in Photoshop).
View attachment 55879
My question has to do with the clear coat. I want the gloss to be consistent on the blue and black sections, so should I spray over the black center section with clear coat after I do the blue on the sides? If so, how would I prep the black section?
Do I need to sand it first with 1000 or 1500? I don't want to paint black if I can avoid another paint color. Just looking for help from painters on the right way to do this if I decide to go for it.
OK, first you sand down your fairing to 400 grit wet or dry. Decrease it with a good degreaser. If it's plastic or fiberglass shoot a nice coat of "Sandable" scratch filling primer. Sand sand it with 400 paper and shoot the whole thing with black paint. First shoot a light tack coat, then shoot to nice cover coats. After that cures for a few days depending on the weather, layout you blue stripes with low-tach painters tape mask off the black and shoot a light tack coat of your blue, let that set up for a few minutes and shoot two nice cover coats. Let that sit for at least a day and gently peel off your low tack tape. Now you will have some ridges where the two paints meet. (There are different ways to do this, but this is how I learned to do it at the custom car shop I worked at)
with 400 paper, lightly sand the sharp edge being really careful not to sand through any of these paints. Love the sword brush up and do a heavy pinstripe line to cover it. Since the blue is higher than the black a thin pinstripe line next to the heavy pinstripe line on the lower black color sets it off just right. When this is dry sand all of the blue and all of the black carefully with 800 paper.(It should be smooth but very tiny imperfections are okay because the clear coat will cover them) give the whole thing attack coat of clear, wait three minutes spray on a cover coat of clear, wait 4 minutes minutes spray on another cover coat of clear, wait five minutes and spray on another coat of clear, wait six minutes and spray on another coat of clear. You now have a very thick clearcoat but that's okay because you in a sand most of it off. Let it dry for about three days and start sanding it with 400 paper. Send it until it is smooth but do not sand through the clearcoat. You will have sanded 80 to 90% of it off and the pinstripes and both of the different colors should be covered by a smooth coat of clear with no bumps or ridges. If you have bumps or ridges, load the gun with more clearcoat and start over again. Give it at least four nice wet coats of clear. Give that a few days to dry lightly sand it with 400 to knock the gloss off and then with 800. If you wanna go up to 1000 1200 or 1500 that's fine that will make the polishing part easier. At 800, I start with the polishing. Polishing is the art painting. I can paint something with a spray can, give it a nice coat of clear, polish it perfectly and it looks as good as a high dollar paint. Go on ebay and get a spray can of house of Kolor paint
http://www.ebay.com/itm/KBC05-COBAL...0414102815&pt=Motors_Automotive_Tools&vxp=mtr
depending on what color you decide to use you might want to give them a call to make sure you use the proper base coats for the color you want like a candy color or a flip-flop.
But trust me on the clearcoat,
http://www.valsparrefinish.com/clearcoats_refinish_AC4400.jsp
Use that! Make sure you get the reducer and the activator. You will love this clearcoat! You could put it on with a paintbrush and his long as you sanded smooth and polish it your results will be good! (That's what they did with the Rolls-Royce in the old days, 24 coats of hand-painted lacquer paint sanded and polish by hand to an immaculate finish! (That's what I've been told anyway from respectable people in the business)
good luck and holler at me if you have any questions! You can also go on YouTube and watch video tutorials of guys painting!
I almost forgot, before you shoot your color coat or clearcoat make sure you gently wipe your surfaces down with a tack cloth. And don't touch them with your fingers because the amino acids in the skin oils will cause all kinds of problems. Ask your person at the auto body supply shop about a good degreaser that you can use after sanding in between coats.
And lastly, anytime you screw up it's okay, just send out your screwup, touch up that spot and keep going. (If it's a metallic or metal flake color be sure to watch a tutorial on YouTube in how to lay the metal flake evenly. How I do it, is I shoot a tack coat on going left to right. Then I shoot my first cover coat tilting the gun slightly to the left and spraying up and down. Then I will spray a diagonal coat. Then I will look at it every which way in the light and if it looks good I'll stop because the next thing it does is gets clearcoat! If it doesn't look like it's laid on with outlines are shadows I'll dust light coats on in all directions until the metal flake looks right. Then it's on to clearcoat.
If you use those giant global metallic flakes you need a special large-size nozzle for your spray gun. And when you spray the flakes on you have to let it dry because some of the flakes will be standing up on their edge. You have to put a rubber glove on and gently slide your hand over them to make them lay down flat before applying the candy color or the clear coat.